Readers of William Godwin's third novel tend nowadays to view it, like the earlier

(1799), as an attempt to respond to the influence of Mary Wollstonecraft. Whether this view of these novels is accurate or not, it can be stated that the sub-title of the novel indicates an involvement with and examination of the notion of sensibility so important in a number of Wollstonecraft's work. As Pamela Clemit notes, in her introduction to the Pickering

: “Although the novel's sub-title alludes to Henry Mackenzie's celebrated sentimental novel,

(1771), the plot of marital jealousy in the third volume derives from Mackenzie's

(1777), an English reworking of Rousseau's

(1761), and from…

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Citation: Allen, Graham. "Fleetwood; or The New Man of Feeling". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 September 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5116, accessed 23 November 2024.]